Mohamed Sanousy Simakan (born 3 May 2000) is a French professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

club

Al-Nassr Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...

Early life

Born in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

to Guinean parents, Simakan acquired

French nationality French nationality law is historically based on the principles of ''jus soli'' (Latin for "right of soil") and ''jus sanguinis'', (Latin for "right of blood") according to Ernest Renan's definition, in opposition to the German definition of nat ...

on 7 November 2005, through the collective effect of his mother's

naturalization Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

Club career

Strasbourg

On 16 May 2018, Simakan signed his first professional contract with

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. He made his professional debut in a 3–1

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

win over

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

on 25 July 2019.

RB Leipzig

On 22 March 2021, Simakan agreed to join German club

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

on a five-year deal for an undisclosed fee, to be effective in the summer of 2021. He made his debut for the club in the First round of the DFB Pokal against

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a Football in Germany, German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. It is Ger ...

, which ended in a 4–0 win. He made his Champions League debut on 21 September 2021, in a 2–1 defeat to

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

. Simakan immediately became an important player for the club, taking part in 28 Bundesliga matches, He missed two matches during the season due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

virus. He was also instrumental in the DFB Pokal, where he took part in all the matches on route to Leipzig winning the title. In his second season with the club, Simaken continued to be an important part of the team, as he played 24 matches in the league, scoring once. On 6 September 2022, he scored his first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

goal in a 4–1 defeat against

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

. Simaken participated in 5 matches in the DFB Pokal, where RB Leipzig won the competition for the second straight season, however he was an unused substitute in the final. On 19 September 2023, he scored the first ever goal of the 2023–24 Champions League season in the 3rd minute of a 3–1 away win over Young Boys.

Al-Nassr

On 2 September 2024, Simakan joined

runners-up

for €45 million.

International career

Thanks to his great performance with Strasbourg in Ligue 1, Simakan was called up by

Bernard Diomède Bernard Nicolas Thierry Diomède (born 23 January 1974) is a French football manager and former professional player. He was most recently the manager of the France U20s. He played as a winger and won the World Cup with France in 1998. Early l ...

to play for France U20 national team. He played his first game as a starter against

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

in which he scored a header contributing to his team's 2–2 draw.

Career statistics

Honours

RB Leipzig *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

: 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

DFL-Supercup The Franz Beckenbauer Supercup or ''German Super Cup'' is a one-off association football, football match in Germany that features the winners of the Bundesliga championship and the DFB-Pokal. The competition is run by the Deutsche Fußball Liga (E ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Al-Nassr *

Saudi Super Cup The Saudi Super Cup () is the annual super cup tournament in Saudi Arabian football. Founded in 2013 as a two-team competition, the Super Cup has been contested by four teams since 2022: the winners and runners-up of the King's Cup and the Sa ...

: runners-up :

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

,https://int.soccerway.com/matches/2024/08/17/saudi-arabia/super-cup/al-nasr-riyadh/al-hilal-riyadh/4399313/

References

External links

Profile
at the RB Leipzig website * *
Racing Stub profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Simakan, Mohamed 2000 births Living people French sportspeople of Guinean descent Black French sportspeople Footballers from Marseille Guinean men's footballers Naturalized citizens of France French men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Men's association football fullbacks RC Strasbourg Alsace players RB Leipzig players Al-Nassr FC players Ligue 1 players Championnat National 3 players Bundesliga players Saudi Pro League players France men's youth international footballers France men's under-21 international footballers French expatriate men's footballers French expatriate sportspeople in Germany French expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia 21st-century French sportsmen